"A disk I/O error has occured"

[Arraphyn.2417]

Cpu: Intel Core Duo E7500 @2.93GHz, 2.13GHzMobo: Gigabyte ep45-ud3Gpu: AMD Radeon HD4650Ram: 4gb (2x2gb) Mushkin DDR2 400MHz

Greetings.

I generally have low FPS due to a potato PC, resulting in models taking a while to load (and me fighting invisible enemies), but I wasn't having any actual trouble, until today.While I was playing, my computer BSOD'd with a "KENNEL_PAGE_DATA_ERROR". Resetting lead to DISK BOOT FAILURE, which I fixed by unplugging and plugging again the HDD into the motherboard.An automated CHKDSK later, I tried to boot Guild Wars 2 once more, but encountered a "A disk I/O error has occured. Guild Wars 2 will now terminate" error, which doesn't happen on my other programs (Firefox, Battle.net launcher). Trying to run a "-repair" shortcut doesn't help, since it leads to the very same error.Furthermore, the same error occured when I tried to launch GW2 from an external hard drive, (although while displaying the error, it did download updates), so most likely it's not due to a faulty hard drive.

[Healix.5819]

Delete or rename the folder %appdata%/Guild Wars 2/ (this is your hardware-related settings, ie graphics) and all gw2cache folders under the %temp% folder. Open your Guild Wars 2 install folder and copy Gw2.dat and Gw2-64.exe (Gw2.exe) to a new Guild Wars 2 folder on your desktop. This is mainly to test your drive, but while it's here, right click this copied Gw2-64.exe and run it as an administrator. If it failed to copy however, the drive is corrupt in that section and you can try running chkdsk to fix it (right click the drive > tools > error checking + bad sectors).

[Arraphyn.2417]

@Healix.5819 said:Delete or rename the folder %appdata%/Guild Wars 2/ (this is your hardware-related settings, ie graphics) and all gw2cache folders under the %temp% folder. Open your Guild Wars 2 install folder and copy Gw2.dat and Gw2-64.exe (Gw2.exe) to a new Guild Wars 2 folder on your desktop. This is mainly to test your drive, but while it's here, right click this copied Gw2-64.exe and run it as an administrator. If it failed to copy however, the drive is corrupt in that section and you can try running chkdsk to fix it (right click the drive > tools > error checking + bad sectors).

Actually, I just tried to copy Gw2.dat to another location and delete the rest of the files and redownload the installer, hoping it fill fix something.However, the same error appears when running the installer.

[Kiza.5630]

You can try https://crystalmark.info/en/software/crystaldiskinfo/Yeah I know, the site is strange looking. ;)

It reads the drive's internal diagnostic information. If it gives any errors it's time to replace the hdd. IDs BB, C5, C6. If there are any values >0 (rightmost column) I would replace the drive. Or post a screenshot of the output and mention me if you are unsure how to interpret the values.

[SlippyCheeze.5483]

@"Kiza.5630" said:You can try https://crystalmark.info/en/software/crystaldiskinfo/Yeah I know, the site is strange looking. ;)

It reads the drive's internal diagnostic information. If it gives any errors it's time to replace the hdd. IDs BB, C5, C6. If there are any values >0 (rightmost column) I would replace the drive. Or post a screenshot of the output and mention me if you are unsure how to interpret the values.

This is a good suggestion.

Ultimately, @Arraphyn.2417, you have a bad disk. It is not in a healthy, or a happy, state. Rerunning the disk check and error fixing may help repairing the problem, but otherwise a complete new download -- preserving nothing -- may also help.

Personally, though? I would replace that disk yesterday. If it is dying badly enough to require replugging the cable, and reporting ongoing I/O errors, it is gonna die completely in the not too distant future. This is not a healthy disk.

Regardless of your choice, please, PLEASE make sure you have a copy of anything you value somewhere other than that one disk. USB stick. Floppy Disk. Punch Cards. Google Drive. I really don't care where, just NOT ON A DYING DISK, so you don't regret your life choices when it finally stops responding for good.

[Arraphyn.2417]

Update: I scheduled another chkdsk for today, it did correct bad sectors which were on Guild Wars' roaming/appdata subfolder. I had already yesterday deleted all files except for Gw2.dat to try a reinstallation. It worked wonders, I can play once again.

@Kiza.5630
SeqQ32T1 Read 104.3, Write 97.724KiBQ8T8 Read 0.589, Write 1.0774KiBQ32T1 Read 0.543, Write 0.7744KiBQ1T1 Read 0.311, Write 0.768What can you make of it?

@SlippyCheeze.5483 don't worry, I've got that covered. Since my PC is a potato, I use it for so few stuff that my documents easily fit in Google Drive and an external hard drive. In fact, I have handy some old 100GB or so IDE hard drives which I could fall back to and run GW2 from the external drive, if need be.

Thanks to both of you, regardless.

[Kiza.5630]

@Arraphyn.2417 said:Update: I scheduled another chkdsk for today, it did correct bad sectors which were on Guild Wars' roaming/appdata subfolder. I had already yesterday deleted all files except for Gw2.dat to try a reinstallation. It worked wonders, I can play once again.

@"Kiza.5630"

SeqQ32T1 Read 104.3, Write 97.724KiBQ8T8 Read 0.589, Write 1.0774KiBQ32T1 Read 0.543, Write 0.7744KiBQ1T1 Read 0.311, Write 0.768What can you make of it?

Uh, that seems like the benchmark thingy you downloaded. :) The "blue link" (Disk Info) not the green one (Disk Mark).

This is the direct download link: https://osdn.net/projects/crystaldiskinfo/downloads/69241/CrystalDiskInfo7_6_1.zip/(unzip and run DiskInfo64)

[Hesacon.8735]

I get this same error during exactly one cutscene in the game, the one where you first go to tarir in the HoT story. No other cutscene has every triggered it (and this one used to not trigger it...).

[Arraphyn.2417]

@Kiza.5630 said:

@Arraphyn.2417 said:

Update:

I scheduled another chkdsk for today, it did correct bad sectors which were on Guild Wars' roaming/appdata subfolder. I had already yesterday deleted all files except for Gw2.dat to try a reinstallation. It worked wonders, I can play once again.

@Kiza.5630

SeqQ32T1 Read 104.3, Write 97.724KiBQ8T8 Read 0.589, Write 1.0774KiBQ32T1 Read 0.543, Write 0.7744KiBQ1T1 Read 0.311, Write 0.768What can you make of it?

Uh, that seems like the benchmark thingy you downloaded. :) The "blue link" (Disk Info) not the green one (Disk Mark).

This is the direct download link:

https://osdn.net/projects/crystaldiskinfo/downloads/69241/CrystalDiskInfo7_6_1.zip/

(unzip and run DiskInfo64)

[PzTnT.7198]

Looks like that drive has started to fail. Better back up your data and replace it before it fails completely.

[Kiza.5630]

Current pending sector = number of sectors the drive can't read anymore and is waiting for them to be overwritten or remapped. The data in those is usually toast. Now you can force the drive to remap it by overwriting that sector, thus destroying the data in it. But usually, once a drive starts to develop those, it will continue to do so.

The rest looks fine though. I would strongly suggest to backup and replace the thing. Put an SSD in there, you will have a new laptop! :D Or rather new PC, doesn't seem to be a laptop.

[TheQuickFox.3826]

It looks like your disk is failing. Backup everything now.A program like Spinrite 6 (US$89) can verify the entire surface of the drive and map out bad sectors. But this software is very old and requires you to put the drive access to Legacy ATA compatible mode.

For less the the cost of the Spinrite program you can buy a replacement drive, so I would do that after you copied off all your (readable) data.

[Arraphyn.2417]

Well, the root of the problem WAS found (generally a disk problem), I'm currently taking actions in order to fix that.Thank you once again for your cooperation, everyone.

But, just in case:If I only use my computer for browsing and the like and the only game is Guild Wars 2 (i.e. no excessive downloading), is the hard drive activity low enough that I might not have problem with current pending sectors?

[Kiza.5630]

@Arraphyn.2417 said:

But, just in case:If I only use my computer for browsing and the like and the only game is Guild Wars 2 (i.e. no excessive downloading), is the hard drive activity low enough that I might not have problem with current pending sectors?

The problem is (most likely): there is an area on the medium that has aged beyond being readable in a reliable way. Or became somehow damaged. You cannot tell what data will be written there. Chances are high that a the GW2 data file will be there, because it's very big. But it's not impossible that data needed for Windows to boot end up there. There are probably other files, that are unreadable you don't even know about yet. Granted, may be unneded junk.

So out of the blue system might not boot anymore. That's the gamble. It might fall apart just like that. If you're ok with that risk.

With all the servers I worked with, these disks were replaced, no questions asked. It just was not worth the time dealing with the problems. And the problems always came back even if you temporarily fixed them by force overwriting the whole disk.

[Arraphyn.2417]

@"Kiza.5630"

Alright. I formatted the hard drive and was okay until today. Then it crashed again twice, so I decided to use my only healthy 1 out of 4 old IDE HDDs, but it wasn't readable.Tried plugging back my many-times-now-"disk boot failed" SATA and not only it worked, but also the program lists it as healthy:

...I can't even.

[Kiza.5630]

The pending sector count got cleared, either they were overwritten and reallocated by the format or you putting stuff on it or the disk decided they are readable again. That's why the warning is gone now. SMART is not perfect and most implementations from drive vendors are wonky at best. I still wouldn't trust a drive who did that once in the past.